The Caslé was discovered in 1883 by Vincenzo Barelli and James Bruyn Andrews who immediately gave the news on the “RivistaArcheologicaComense” (Archaelogical magazine of the Como area). The site was identified as a “castelliere” (fortified settlement) by Antonio Magni during the first research going back to 1906.
The digs brought to light a large quantity of ceramic pieces characterized by undulating trends and decorations impressed by the fingers that can be attributed as vases used by the inhabitants of the castelliere for the cooking, consumption and the preservation of food. These and other finds such as a fusarola (moulding) for the working of wool, two stone millstones, and various smaller grinders that today are preserved at Milan’s Archaeological Museum at the Castello Sforzesco, Como’s Civic Museum and Lecco’s Civic Museum.
The site was dated between the end of the Bronze Age and the start of the Iron Age (between the XIII and X centuries BC) on the basis of the first images. During this period the castellieri spread out to strategic positions in northern Italy, such as in proximity to important communication routes and/or the confluence of two valleys, in order to establish a defensive network.
Subsequent events such as the creation of the Cadorna Line during the First World War and the subsequent reforestation of the area compromised the research, especially in the entire southern part of the castelliere that was most affected by the digging for the creation of trenches and small forts.
The subsequent revaluation of the zone allowed the cleaning of the perimeter wall for a length of about 80 metres. This was done with “in a bag style” using medium to large size limestone blocks and its width (4/5 metres) suggests a height of about 4 metres.
The first stratigraphic investigations between 2006 and 2010 brought to light further important discoveries. Some surveys carried out close to a big boulder decorated with coppelle, discovered at the foot of the castelliere, showed evidence of human settlements going back to the period preceding the construction of the Caslé that could go back to the Copper Age.
CURIOSITY: in the area of the Caslé there is Bolla (the “bubble” referred to above) that testifies to the importance of water for the survival of man and animals. In the past the Bolle, ponds that collected rain water by exploiting natural depressions, were carefully controlled and maintained by local populations who, in order to prevent them drying, carried out some regular operations: “the bottom had to be cleaned of grass and roots, the soil made waterproof by beating it for a long time with wooden poles and covering them with ashes and dry leaves. The very trampling of the cows that entered the water to drink favoured the waterproofing and the oxygenation during the period of pasture” (1)
- Uboldi M. “Il Caslè di Ramponio Verna. Guida ai luoghi e agliscavi” (The Caslé of RamponioVerna, guide to the places and the excavations), 2011, Ed. Noto (Co) – pag. 46;
Fonti:
- Uboldi M. “Il Caslè di Ramponio Verna. Guida ai luoghi e agliscavi” (The Caslé of RamponioVerna, guide to the places and the excavations), 2011, Ed. Noto (Co);
- Uboldi M. Le ricerchearcheologichenelcastellieredell’Età del Bronzosul Monte Caslè di Ramponio Verna (The archaelogical research of the castelliere in the Bronze Age on Monte Caslé of RamponioVerna), in the “RivistaArcheologicadellaProvincia di Como” (Magazine, of Archaeology in the Province of Como),,, 190, 2008;
- Uboldi M., Caimi R. Ramponio Verna (CO), Monte Caslè, Castellieredell’Età del Bronzo (Ramponio Verna (CO), (Monte Caslé, Castelliere of the Bronze Age), in the “NotiziarioSoprintendenzaArcheologicadellaLombardia” (Newsletter of the Superintendence of Archaeology of Lombardy), 2005;
- Uboldi M., Caimi R. Il Castellieredell’Età del Bronzosul Monte Caslè di Ramponio Verna (Como). Progetto di intervento e primidati (The Castelliere of the Bronze Age on Monte Caslé of Ramponio Verna (Como) Plan for the intervention and the first data), in Pessina A., Visentini P. “Preistoriadell’ItaliaSettentrionale. Studi in ricordo di Bernardino Bagolini” (Prehistory in Northern Italy. Studies in memory of BernardiniBagolini), Udine, 2006.
- Magni A. Il Caslè di Ramponio. Il primo Castellierescoperto in Lombardia, in Val d’Intelvi (Como) (The Caslé of Ramponio, The first Castelliere discovered in Lombardy, in Val d’Intelvi (Como) ), in the “RivistaArcheologicadellaProvincia di Como” (Magazine, of Archaeology in the Province of Como), 72, 1915;
- Degrassi N. Val d’Intelvi (Lombardy, Val d’Intelvi), in the “Rivista di ScienzePreistoriche” (Magazine of Prehistoric Sciences), VII, 3-4, 1952;